1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a networking system for a refrigerator and a method of upgrading the networking system, and, more particularly, to a networking system for a refrigerator in which a network module available for both wireless and wire accesses to the network over the Internet is built, thereby constructing a home network and allowing an access to an outer network over the Internet, the networking system able to be easily upgraded, and a method of upgrading the networking system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the infrastructure for networking has been expanded and electric home appliances available for accessing the Internet have increasingly shown up in the market, technologies allowing the transmission of information and data between electric home appliances installed at home have become common; for example, home networking systems have been used.
The home networking system is comprised of an outer network accessible to the Internet, a network at home, and a home gateway connecting the outer network and the home network. To manage the home networking system, a central terminal is required, so as to connect and control the electronic appliances accessed to the network to thereby be operated as a unified system and to collect information from each of the electronic appliances. On the other hand, the central terminal is to display statuses of the electronic appliances accessed to the network as confirmed so as for the user to be aware of the statuses, and to control the electronic appliances as the user selects.
In order to construct a home networking system, the installation of a home server and a home gateway are separately required. Also, upgrading of the networking devices and programs for managing them in a continuous manner are needed. In this regard, since the upgrading has a comparatively short cycle, the user must pay careful attention to the system management.